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Taking Sides Issues Summary

Decent Essays

Taking Sides Issue 2: Does Globalization Threaten Cultural Diversity?
Julia Galeota and Philippe Legrain
In Taking Sides Issue 2, Julia Galeota and Philippe Legrain argue their side of whether globalization threatens cultural diversity. Thanks to technological advances, people all over the world are better able to communicate with and travel to other countries. This increased interaction leads to a mixing of various cultures known as cultural globalization. In this Issue, the two authors are concerned with what happens when one cultures spreads at a much faster rate and dominates other cultures. Both use the spread of American culture as their main example, citing American movies being watched worldwide and the popularity of the English language. The following summarized articles debate whether these cultural changes are positive or negative. Julia Galeota’s article is first, which contends that globalization and, more specifically, American globalization is negative and amounts to cultural imperialism. Galeota is convinced that America’s cultural imperialism is forcing other cultures to go extinct. Galeota believes America and its corporations do this out of the belief that the American way of life is the superior one. To highlight this, she points to the very first American settlers …show more content…

Critics believe that if more countries held the same cultural beliefs (American ones) that there would be less violence and fewer arguments between countries. Galeota wholeheartedly rallies again the idea of a one-culture world. She argues that even if all the countries in the world were to hold the same cultural beliefs, it certainly doesn’t guarantee there won’t be fighting. Plus, in her opinion, who would want a world without a variety of unique cultures? She elaborates, “The complex fabric of diverse cultures around the world is a fundamental and indispensable basis of humanity”

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